La Vie Niçoise

Pas vrai.

I'd been looking forward to today for a while. It was my day of maturity, kind of like my 21st birthday or the day I passed my road test.

Today I was to receive my U of Nice student ID. You think I'm joking, but the student ID card is quite literally the key to life, the universe and everything.

With ma carte d'etudiante, I would be able to open a student bank account, get a discounted bus pass, apply for financial assistance, register for that university TaeKwonDo class, take out (comic) books from the university library, buy cheap food from the school cafeteria... go swimming, horseback riding... ;)

So, I got to the university super early to line up, the eager beaver I am, and whip through the first two booths where they checked my documents and took my money. Finally, I get to the booth labeled "Carte d'étudiante".

I proudly present my dossier, stamped all over with random approvals, and grin at the lady. "Voilà." She's like the rest of the staff, barely acknowledging my existence but with a curt nod as she takes the papers. I don't care, I keep smiling because I'm about 2 seconds away from getting my prize.

She looks up at me over the top of her glasses.

"Ta carte de séjour?"

I give her that confused look that's been perma-frozen on my face for the last 3 weeks. Gears spin in my head as I realize she's asking for my French residency/study permit, the thing I was gonna get the next day.

"Je croyais qu'il faut avoir une carte d'etudiante avant d'avoir une carte de séjour."(I thought you needed a student ID card in order to get the residency permit.)

"Non." And she rambled on a for a few seconds before I realized... You need to get the residency permit BEFORE getting the student card. And yet, the government doesn't grant you the carte de sejour w/o proof of enrollment. Um, chicken and the egg problem, no?

"Tiens." She passed me a sheet of paper attesting that I was temporarily enrolled at the university.

My face darkened as I realized I was NOT going to get my carte d'etudiante that day. Sonuva!

As I stormed out of the office (well, knowing me, it was more like shuffle out sorta dejected-like) I vowed to go straight to the préfecture to get that damned carte de sejour. After asking 4 different people, taking the bus in the wrong direction and checking the internet, I was finally on a bus heading out to the prefecture in Nice Ouest, past the airport, in the boonies, about 45 minutes away.

I was worried, because by that time it was already 3:30, and knowing French administration, the prefecture was probably closed already. Had to take my chance, though. I couldn't spare another moment without my student id card, 'cause I urgently needed to open my bank account so my mom could wire me the rest of my savings.

The buildings grew taller and newer as we left the downtown part of Nice (opposite, eh?) and I stood up to ask the bus driver the requisite "Are we there yet?".

"Non, pas encore, blablablablabombe" (No, not yet, ???????bombe)

I had him repeat himself, but I still couldn't make out the last part of his sentence. Darn, it seemed important too. I should brush up on my french expressions, I thought to myself.

When the stop finally came up about 20 mins later, he repeated that incomprehensible sentence and gestured in the direction of the prefecture. "Merci." I hopped off the bus and started heading in that direction, but got lost again within 9 steps.

"Pardon," I stopped a french skater kid walking down the sidewalk within his friends, "Tu sais ou est la préfecture?" (Do you know where the prefecture is?)

"Oui, c'est la." He pointed to a cluster of buildings about 200 metres away. "Mais il y a une alerte de bombe, tu vois la police?" And that's when I looked around at the police motorcycles speeding past, the sirens, the flashing emergency lights.

Une alerte de bombe. A bomb scare, at the prefecture! THAT's what the bus driver was trying to tell me!

I looked at the kid again, and asked one of more stupid questions that make me rival Phoebe from Friends.

"Alors, c'est fermée?" (Um, so it's closed then?)

Yes, Angelica. Another brilliant deduction.